We had a great day with so many others affected in some way by a food allergy or multiple food allergies. It’s really nice to know that we’re not alone, and that we all have the support of family and friends to enable us to get to the walk and work to make a difference in all of our lives.

Upon arrival, we did many things in a special event tent before the opening ceremony. Several “top-8-free” food samples & small toys were handed out. The kids colored some food allergy related pictures, decorated some foam teal pumpkins, made a beaded necklace & bracelet (Ian even threaded some beads all by himself!), danced with a DJ, played with masks in a photo booth, and just mingled with people who “get” it.

Molly also had an EMT help her wrap “Miss Daisy” (a stuffed bunny/dog/thing that was Bethany’s when she was little) in some gauze bandages, apply a regular band-aid, and administer a practice EpiPen auto-injector with the Teddy Bear Clinic. She did really good! She may need to help me or any of her friends some day.

We listened to a speech by that very same brave young lady about her struggles she has had as someone with 15 allergies that can all lead to anaphylaxis. More important than the struggles are the many things she has learned to overcome, the incredible friends she has made, and how well she has learned to adapt while moving away from home and going to school at Pitt. She has used an EpiPen, and it has saved her life. She leads a normal active life and is dedicating it to service to others by being an EMT!

Along our walk, there were many food allergy facts on signs throughout the zoo. We used them to start conversations with the kids about how Molly has outgrown her allergy to eggs, how I will not outgrow mine, and how they will probably have a few friends in school with food allergies and that they need to be good friends to those kids and help them avoid their allergens and get the proper help quickly if needed!

It’s amazing that last year Molly knew at 2 years old to ask if a food item contained things like eggs, mayonnaise, or ranch dressing. She understands now that daddy can’t eat shellfish. She even pointed out the (incredibly creepy spiny) lobsters in the aquarium & said “You can’t eat that.” I know Ian is a bit young to understand, but I don’t think it hurts to throw all the information out there and see what eventually sticks.

In the zoo, we had the incredible opportunity to get a photo with Victoria the elephant, pet (and get liked by) a deer, and pet some goats and sheep. Ian loved the peacock roaming around, and I think he almost touched him. Ha ha. We also talked about how similar yet different Butterscotch is to all the big cats among many other animal facts that we have read in books & on the signage there in the park.

How this will possibly turn into backlash against the food allergy community.

How for me, luckily, I recently got an EpiPen 2-pack that was covered because we met our deductible already for the year & we have great coverage with an HSA.

How people read an article on the internet and spout-off about something which they know virtually nothing about and won’t care about again in 2 months.

But, if you’re interested (even mildly), you have already read those things and made up your own mind.

My initial reaction was to pull out of the FARE walk for Food Allergy due to Mylan’s sponsorship. But, that won’t do anyone any good. We still need research. We still need advocacy. We still need awareness. We still need a cure.

I have to trust that in the midst of public outcry, Bresch will be held to task. I can hope that the rest of the good people at Mylan don’t suffer. I currently refuse to revel in the failures of others, even if it is at their own hand.

I know money is tight. I know there are a million causes worth donating to. I know there are walks for everything these days. So, I understand what I’m asking when I ask you to consider a donation to FARE in support of our walk.

My shellfish allergy is pretty severe, but I have learned to navigate life successfully with it. It would be nice for people to not have to worry about these things some day. Molly has recently outgrown an allergy to eggs, greatly in part to incredible pediatricians, local allergists involved in the FARE walk, and their advice as it is informed by the latest research and techniques. There is still a chance that either of my kids could develop allergies later. My shellfish allergy didn’t really manifest until I was in 3rd or 4th grade.

My plea isn’t the standard. I know not everyone has $50 or even $25 to give to a cause that may not even affect their lives directly. I’m asking for $10 to go to FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education). I’d rather get a bunch of small donations from a whole lot of people.

This is how my friends/followers/whatever break down on social media, and what the total would amount to if everyone managed to donate $10:

All of those except Tumblr are well over our team goal of $600. All of them total would be $28,570.00. I know there’s some obvious overlap, so that’s not a real number if everyone only donated $10, but it’s also not ridiculous.

If you’re reading this and don’t have $10 to spare, or your donation money is going to a cause closer to your heart, that’s cool too. Just reading raises awareness and that is also extremely important. You can find all kinds of food-allergy related rants and information here on my blog. Sharing on your social media platform of choice would be really cool too.

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So, this past Saturday night we had an interesting experience at the local Bob Evans. I have blogged about one of our experiences with an angry server there before, but haven’t touched upon the 3 or 4 other times that “the kitchen held up the order” while she talked to other customers at great length about slot machines at the Meadows, or the time that she rolled her eyes at me while the wife and I were discussing the seasonal shrimp on the menu in regards to where it was cooked and my allergy. This time we were most likely doubly annoying as we had two small children with us. The saga begins…

I hope this message finds you well, and that you’re both still with the Bob Evans team! You may remember that I had contacted you in the past about the #jelly3x rule and a bad experience at the Bob Evans in Bridgeville Pennsylvania, and blogged about that alongside your enthusiastic response, and even more thorough follow-up.

We have since had a few other experiences with that waitress, including one where she rolled her eyes at me and said “well, you don’t have to order it” when I was discussing the shrimp stir-fry available seasonally. Clearly, she has absolutely no grasp of cross-contamination. The running theme with her seems to be that the kitchen is always late & to blame with any service issues.

Being that we have generally excellent food & service at the Bridgeville location, and it’s now even closer to home since we have moved to Bridgeville, we have gone in to dine and simply requested with the host or hostess to not be seated in her section.

Sadly this weekend, we didn’t spot her upon our arrival and did not inform the hostess of our preference. We were quickly welcomed by the hostess, seated in her section and decided to go with it as it had been a while since we had Maleficent as our server.

Nowadays, we have a 2½ year old and a 7 month old in tow. Bob Evans is a great place to get a full meal for a family without breaking the bank, yet another notch in the proverbial “pro’s” column. (I mean, have you spent the same amount of money at Panera or Steak n’ Shake? It’s not even half of the food. Maybe local heroes Eat’n Park can almost compete.)

Maleficent quickly came to the table and took our drink orders. Our eldest ordered apple juice, I asked for an iced tea, and the wife went for water. Our drinks were brought quickly and our waitress shot a nasty look to the table beside us as the hostess sat another family with 3 older children as she set our drinks down. She came back a bit later to take our food order and my wife politely asked for straws which we didn’t get with our drinks and some crayons that weren’t included with our kid’s meal place-mat menu.

Maleficent Immediately huffed as she slammed down the straws and remarked that she didn’t have time to get crayons because she just had two other tables seated in her section. We were only wanting crayons because it had taken her a while to come back and take our food order, well before anyone else had been seated in our section.

I forget exactly what the exchange was that followed. I know my wife had mentioned that we had had several problems in the past with her service. I was pretty much shocked into jaw-agape silence at that point. My wife ended with standing up to go speak to the manager, and Maleficent yelled (yes, yelled) “Lincoln, take tables 54 and 56!” or something to that effect.

After my wife came back from a conversation with the manager, one of the aforementioned customers beside us said “Wow. I can’t believe she told you no on the crayons.” We gave the super-condensed version of our history with Maleficent as they continued in their wide-eyed disbelief.

Maleficent continued to serve that family, but we and another nearby table had been reassigned to a young man named Lincoln (Linkin?), on either Maleficent or the manager’s authority. I wasn’t present for my wife’s conversation with the manager, but it was apparently full of knowing nods and angry head-shakes as she regaled the manager with tales of our past adventures with Maleficent. I do know that my wife apparently characterized me as a madman about to lose all patience to bolster her point. Perhaps that’s why the manager never came to the table to offer either an apology or an explanation.

Now, reading back on this, the story so far does sound like we are being absolutely ridiculous over the exclusion of two crayons for the amusement of our child who’s behavior, rearing, and amusement are wholly our responsibility. Do you also see how the past history and an apparently poor attitude towards customers and a potential tip factor into this moment? It must have been some serious shenanigans in order for the next table to notice.

The lesson I have learned is that we will keep crayons and a coloring book in our family vehicle for just such a purpose. It is not Bob Evans’ responsibility to develop my child’s creativity and fine motor skills, nor to provide a means to pacifying the insatiable need for constant activity or the lack of patience to wait for a delicious prepared meal. Despite evidence to the contrary, we were indeed prepared parents with our own plastic mess-prevention and environment-sterilizing place-mat for our son. He can’t color yet, but he can shovel tiny bits of food into his mouth at a rate destined to require another kid’s meal sooner rather than later.

This leads us to Lincoln (Linkin?). Lincoln was certainly on top of his game after being saddled with two more tables in addition to his already presumably busy/full section. He came through and delighted our daughter with a two-pack of pink and purple crayons. Lincoln took our order with a smile, brought the food out quickly with no conspiratorial kitchen issues, and was just all-around pleasant. We even had to ask for a replacement fork as we had somehow lost one. It was brought out amid a flurry of what I presume to be normal Saturday restaurant activity with no hesitation, and rather quickly. We even got jelly on one request.

After our meal, we thanked him for being such an incredible server, and I remarked that I was glad he was so understanding because I was nervous about being labeled as some sort of problem after requesting a new server. He indicated that it was not a surprise, happens regularly, and that he didn’t come to us with any preconceived notions. He also added that people inexplicably (my words, not his) come in and request to be seated in Maleficent’s section and Maleficent’s section only.

We will request Lincoln’s section in the future, and barring that option we’ll just request not be seated in Maleficent’s section. I can play that game. We cleaned up as best we could from our inevitable child-induced mess, left close to a 50% tip, and found the errant fork before we left. The table directly beside us (I assume the other table taken by Lincoln at the same time we were handed over) also rather audibly and publicly thanked Lincoln for being such a great server. I’m not sure if they also had issues that we weren’t aware of? I told the cashier how happy we were with our service upon checkout.

I don’t want to pick on a server. I do want to illustrate the contrast between what I see as poor service as it relates to incredible service and how it didn’t seem to be any more difficult than you make it. I do hope Lincoln is rewarded for a job well done and his overall attitude. I’m sure it reflects in his work effort and in his gratuities. I would hope that you can again pass this email along to all of the appropriate parties. Area coaches and the store management, correct? I really feel like we were nothing but polite and reasonable up until we were denied crayons, and we remained polite and reasonable immediately after that whole exchange. That seems like an absolutely insane sentence for one adult to write to another. Do I have a valid point, or am I just super way out of line here?

I would just drop the entire issue and move on, but Bob Evans is one of the few places that I can safely get a meal with my shellfish allergy, I can comfortably order anything on the menu (outside of the seasonal Lent-deathfish), it’s very close by, and I feel like we really get great value for a dollar when we dine at your establishment.

Last time you sent out some gift certificates. Please save them this time. I don’t want free food, I just want a stress-free dining experience. If you must send gift certificates, can you direct them to a Pittsburgh charity that can give them to people who do perhaps need a free meal? Thankfully I can put food on the table for my family while many others struggle to do so. We need to get our butts out on a kids-eat-free promotional night if we want a free meal.

I realize that in the grand scheme of things, my complaints are trivial. I realize that some would enjoy any meal regardless of the way in which it was delivered. What if though, this had been that meal for someone? What if this was one night out that they looked forward to and it was met with the kind of service that we regularly receive from one apparently disgruntled waitress? Is this how Bob Evans wants to be perceived?

I plan to blog this adventure also. I do less of that these days, but this seemed to be appropriately entertaining. Of course, the names will be omitted or changed.

I also look forward to your response and insight. Thank you once again for your time and assistance!

I can’t wait for a response. Sadly, I see from the Yahoo! mailer daemon that Nate is no longer with Bob Evans. I think I knew he outgrew them a while back. I may try to ping it out to a few more people. I have contacted others at Bob Evans in the past, during my pre-Wordpress days. I even had someone send me a “safe” list of where things were cooked and what would be OK for me to eat while they had shellfish on the menu. Overall they have stellar corporate customer service, but we just have this continual issue with a crazy server who reminds me of the mailman in the movie Funny Farm.

Like this:

Kyle Dine is an incredibly talented and extremely creative children’s entertainer. He also wields the utmost authority on living life while coping with food allergies as he has multiple food allergies himself and is a successful world-travelled musical educator.

These expertly crafted videos are full of incredibly fun and catchy age-appropriate songs and lessons about having food allergies. How to avoid your trigger foods, hand washing, always carrying your auto-injector, and how to quickly reach out for help if necessary are just some of the topics not only touched upon but driven home by Kyle and his puppet friends.

As an adult with a severe food allergy I am so glad that this type of resource is available for the ever-growing “club” of the food allergic. As a parent of a child with food allergies, this is an invaluable tool to help teach a toddler turning into a pre-schooler about the importance of not eating food unless it’s OK’d by mommy or daddy, and for her to let us know immediately if she is having a reaction. Luckily she loves to wash her hands, so we’ve got that covered. These lessons are delivered in the fine tradition of children’s programming like Sesame Street or Mr. Rogers, and they work. Both of my kids were moving to the music upon our first viewing!

I not only recommend this for food allergy families, but I would say that extended family who may not understand food allergies, your child’s friends and their parents, and organizations like schools, churches, camps, & clubs could all benefit from the knowledge and entertainment provided by this set of DVD’s. This programming ought to play on constant rotation in your family’s pediatric allergist’s office waiting room.

This can and will serve as an incredibly fun way to open the door to creating a fun, safe, and confident approach to living with food allergies.